edutech4schools

Just seen that Google are releasing Play for Education which is a framwork for teachers to control tablets and the apps installed on them. This will be something I will be really interested in. Will past link to info later.

When you dcpromo a server to be a DC it will automatically install and copy DNS and AD settings. You should be ok to do this as I do it all the time to create a new DC. You would then need to transfer the roles to the new server and copy DHCP. I use a cmd to backup and export DHCP but I do not have it to hand at the mo. Would you like more info?

@CyberNerd Thanks. Was worried they would be like the tax office but they answered the phone before the first ring had ended.

Norfolk County Council are using Google Apps and you would hope the legal department have checked. Norfolk County Council deploys Google Apps to 148,000 users - ComputerworldUK.com @CyberNerd Thanks for the ICO info. Will be contacting them shortly.

I have worked with both RM based schools and standard server schools and I would 100% recommend going standard and ditching RM. If you are OK using standard MS server systems then you will find the RM software actually complicates most processes. Just my opinion.

turn off all the school security and bingo SMT have what they need. Probably not such a good idea working on student data from McD's.

Its in the manage pages on the website

If you were a primary I would be pointing you at LearnPad - The Tablet Computer Designed for Education . Changing the theme from Senco to Egyptian using the bar code system made all our I-pad lovers go wow. Not sure if they are any good for secondary schools as I have not looked at that side. Another plus is they can map drives.

Primary, secondary etc?

interesting read and funny video Microsoft slams Google services as insecure as Boston ditches Exchange for Gmail- The Inquirer

@pcstru Oddly it is not because of the T&C but has been driven by the schools in a way to keep the experience for the KS1 & 2 users as simple as possible. In fact Google Apps has been put in to most of my primary schools as a way of replacing an expensive website / email system and has been based more around staff requirements, working on docs from home for example, and having a really easy website that actually gets kept up to date by the teachers. Then as the staff have got used to the google system and played they ended up under their own initiative creating the forms system for children to use, I think if the children had been given full docs access the forms homework system would not have come about but it does seem to work. I do only work in primary schools which have a unique way of doing things and do not require all the bells and whistles, and keeping things very simple is a must for ks1 children. At one of the primaries I am currently looking in to year 6 having full Google apps access, as the local community college has requested all the local schools get the children ready for using Google when they change schools. The local community college has been fully Googled up for almost 4 years.

We use bits and bobs from Gapps. One of my schools uses it with the Governors, so they can add notes and audit trails to important documents getting signed off. A few others use the Sites as a website / VLE.

I have a primary schools that have all the teachers signed up to gapps but the students simply use public facing areas and have not signed up. As an example, for homework the teacher wants some info on how trees grow, they create a form with the question and attach that to the website. The pupils visit the school website and complete the form and the answers all get populated in the teachers spreadsheet which is obviously in a secured area. Not how it was designed to work but does seem to do the job.

You can use a free ddns service DDNS – Free Dynamic DNS Providers | DNS Lookup which most home routers support and install your own mailserver hMailServer - Free email server for Microsoft Windows I think to use your own domain dame you need to pay for the ddns service but I used the free ones a few years back.

Google docs would be perfect for you. You can add side notes ( governors love this ) and all the rest you listed.

I have 3 of my 5 primary schools using Google Apps for ED as a replacement for the schools main website and VLE. My other 2 schools are moving to G apps in the next few months. It has worked very well for us and does everything you listed.

Funny thing is my schools all only use Chrome but I have got to be careful not to install IE10 as the Chrome proxy settings are linked to the IE proxy settings.

But if 2008r2 is still being supported by MS, and it is as simple as changing a number in an xml file then why are MS forcing us to use RSAT / W8 / server 2013 (EDIT 2012).

This might be of interest LearnPad - The Tablet Computer Designed for Education You can download a free demo onto any android tab and have a play. Basically it allows you to - mass install software change themes and profile across multiple devices either from a website or scanning a bar code lock the tabs down access network drives / resources other stuff ( have a play with the demo)

Would be handy to have a feature like Facebook so you can simply click a button and see how the system looks from another users point of view without having to log out and in as them.

Yes and for the most part G Maps is fantastic and has lots of stuff hidden away. Only issue is when I go to France in the camper I am not always sure where I want to end up so need 100% downloaded always offline map. That said I have always managed to find a McD's with wireless or turn on data connection to get missing Gmap data. I have decided to give CoPilot a go along with some of the free ones so will post back my findings.

I found changing the profile using the scanner made all I-Pad users heads turn and start to engage.

Thanks. Will have look your suggestions and do some more reading.

I did not realise that IllumiRoom from Microsoft actually incorporates the room objects in the game you are playing and is not just a projector. I wonder how this will look in a few years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ4hWa6y710&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I have driven round France and the UK using the free Google navigator and actually found it very good so long as we could tell it where we needed to go when we had a wireless connection. If we needed to divert during the journey I would need to turn on data and that costs money. Would you recommend I pay for a navigation app and have the complete map on my phone? and if so which apps are any good?